Between 2000 and 2009 Britons collectively saved £384bn into pension funds and life insurance products, according to research from Lloyds TSB and the ONS.
Savings in stocks and shares ISAs were worth £178bn in 2009/10, beating £172bn in cash ISAs, according to ONS figures.
The FTSE advanced in early trading following positive overnight signs in the US and a mini rally in Asia.
The banking sector's warnings that tighter regulation will throttle the recovery have been rejected by the body designing the new safeguards.
US-based firm Claymore Securities is closing and liquidating four ETFs that trade on NYSE Arca.
BP has begun to offload assets aimed at raising cash to pay for the Gulf of Mexico disaster, agreeing the $7bn sale of fields in the US, Canada and Egypt to Apache.
The head of the UK's new fiscal watchdog will step down in the summer when his three-month contract expires, a spokesman for the Treasury said last night.
Seven people have been charged with conspiring to defraud investors through a series of alleged boiler room share scams.
Lord Myners, the City minister, has called for an independent review into the investment banking industry which has "permeated so many corners of society".
City of London police made 12 arrests over the Christmas period in Manchester and Sunderland in connection with one of Europe's biggest share frauds, in which hundreds of victims lost in excess of £20m.